Goya walks further and does stairs

It's been more than two weeks since Goya walked to Starbucks for the first time and stood up by himself with a little help from gravity (sitting on a hill). I have to report that progress has been slow in these past three weeks. It's been very hot and maybe that has something to do with it (nobody wants to exert themselves, why should he?).

He is walking further. We go to Starbucks every morning and that is getting easier and eaiser (expecially if its a little cooler). Gary has been taking him around the block (it's a loooong block with a prety big up-hill section) and that takes about an hour, but gary takes a book and lets Goya rest wenever he wants to sit down. Only once has he been able to get up by himself even when sitting on a hill. We walked to the bank tonight and he almost got up by himself at a curb. He had been so well-trained to sit when we got to a curb before crossing the street, that he did that tonight several times. This was the first time we used a collar and leash instead of the walkabout "handle pants", so maybe he felt more like his old self. At one curb, his front feet slipped into the street while he was trying to get up and they was almost enough to help him get up, butnot quite.

He is now going up and down the front stoop steps -- 6 rough concrete steps. He doesn't slip on those, and he is very careful. Good boy!

We really wish he would hurry up and stand by himself. We have to take our daughter to college in a few weeks and his regular "doggy sitter" can't take him if he can't get up by himself. We'll have to put him on a regimen of deep knee bends.